Five Australian university students who dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan and one who dressed in blackface as a “cotton-picking” slave for a “politically incorrect” themed party will be investigated after the vice-chancellor condemned their actions.

The men, from Charles Sturt University, posted multiple pictures of themselves to social media on Thursday night, as they attended an end-of-semester party at the Black Swan Hotel in Wagga Wagga.

One photo posted to Instagram and since deleted was captioned “very very politically incorrect”. “Cotton prices are unreal though so it’s a great time to be pickin,” it said.

It showed five men in homemade Ku Klux Klan hoods and robes and one man in blackface and body paint, pretending to be a slave.